Lux Art Institute

When artist David Humphrey arrived at the Lux Art Institute on Nov. 11 for a monthlong residency, he faced a blank wall, or, to be more specific, a blank door.

The core of the Lux concept is the artist creates artwork, and the public gets to watch. Humphrey asked to paint the large sliding door that dominates one of the studio’s four walls.

Humphrey returned to New York last week, and that door is now “Pastorale With Pets.” But not for long.

Unlike most of the work created at the Lux, “Pastorale” will only last as long as Humphrey’s exhibit. At Humphrey’s request, the door (and the surrounding walls) will be painted over once the exhibit ends on Jan. 1.

“To work on the largest scale, I knew that I wanted to address the architecture,” said Humphrey, a senior critic at Yale University whose paintings are in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in addition to numerous other private and public collections. “The only way to do that was to be on the architecture. I don’t mind that it gets painted out. I could either do it again, or do it somewhere else. It’s now in me; it’s become an option.”

His goal at the Lux, he explained during his final week in residence, was to solve a “puzzle” he set for himself: “To harmonize the architecture with the exhibition, and the world outside.”

There’s no question he succeeded.

His “canvas,” that sliding door, is one of the primary architectural features of the Lux studio. When the door is open, you get a sweeping view of the San Elijo Lagoon and the surrounding area. The vista extends to Rancho Santa Fe, where you can see several houses perched on a ridge. When the door is closed, there’s a solid wall.

Humphrey has painted a fantastical tree on, above and beyond the door. It seems to sprout large, abstract patches of color, as well as encompass several new, high-hung canvasses, a video monitor, even the I-beam supporting the door.

“It is something of a modern-art tree, or maybe it’s like children’s art, or like a giant crayon drawing of a tree,” he said. “It’s a tree that gives fruit, and it’s kind of a mad bunch of fruit that includes video monitors and canvasses. And when the door is open, it’s more like one tree, but when it closes, it becomes a bit of a grove, a cluster, or a stand of trees.”

Off in the distance in the painting is an image of one of the houses on the ridge, and in the foreground he has hung a painting he made of the Lux. There’s also a doghouse, a dog bowl and a large, wild-eyed cat with claws extended.

“I relate to him,” Humphrey said. “I think the cat is the artist presence, so he’s a little wild, a little dangerous, but also maybe a little frightened.”